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Adani Gujarat Giants head coach Rachael Haynes is quite hopeful of her team bouncing back in the later half of the tournament after a disappointing performance so far in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023.
Currently, Gujarat Giants are in the fourth position on the points table with just 1 win from 4 games. Their only win in the tournament came against RCB, whom they defeated by 11 runs on March 8 at the Brabourne Stadium.
Gujarat Giants are all set to clash against the table-toppers Mumbai Indians in their fifth match of the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday, March 14.
After losing the game by a big margin against MI in the season opener, the Giants will be hoping to change their fortunes going into the second-leg of the tournament.
Question: I wanted to ask what was the reason behind leaving Sophia Dunkley out for Laura Wolvaardt in the previous game? We did hear Sneh Rana at the toss saying it was something related to the team combination. So can you share that with us?
“Yeah, I think Sophia was pretty unlucky to be left out of the side last game. She put in a really good performance with the bat the game before. So yeah I think from our point of view, obviously our batting hasn’t quite clicked as a team,” said Haynes.
“So, yeah It’s something we’ve got to get right. We’ve got to obviously understand the oppositions that we’re coming up against and the conditions that we are facing as well. But, yeah I think she (Sophia) is a really good opening batter.
“She takes the game on which in this format is really important and I think we’ve seen the nature of the grounds as well that you’ve got to have a bit of courage and the powerplay can really if you get off to a good start, it can really put your opposition under pressure.
“So yeah I think from our point of view, we’ve got to make sure along the way we have some really good partnerships too to make sure at the back end that there is a set batter to be able to capitalize at the death. Because I think you’ve seen across the competition not just in our team, having set batters at the back end of an inning, it’s very hard to shut them down,” she added.
Question: Your team is in the fourth position on the points table now with just one win. So, what do you think has gone wrong for your team till now and what will be your plans for the remaining half of the tournament to make sure that your team qualify for the playoffs?
“Look, I think there’s probably a few things. I think the first match was a really big occasion for our group and perhaps for a lot of young players that was the first time they’d experienced such a big game. So, you could see it they’re a little bit overwhelmed at times but they’ll learn from that experience and the accumulation of all those experience across their career will help make them better players too.
“But, yeah I thought we switched focus really well after that game and unfortunately just came up against Grace Harris who was in fine form and took the game away from us against UP Warriorz. We responded really well and got our first win against RCB and then yeah obviously just did not have a good night at all against Delhi.
“So we’ve seen throughout this competition not just our side that teams are going to go through highs and lows. It’s the nature of T20 cricket, particularly when you’re trying to take the game on. The good news for us is we’re going back to CCI which is a venue where we’ve won. I thought we played really well as well and I think our team matches up well to that venue too.
“So the players will take confidence into that but yeah the reality is our future is still in our own hands. The teams we have to play are obviously sitting above us as well. So, if we can snatch some games off them and have a really strong finish, we can be part of finals too. So, our future is still in our hands which is good, but we’ve just got to focus on on the match ahead of us which is the game against Mumbai tomorrow,” she concluded.
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